Virtually every taxpayer in the United States is aware that April 15 is the date on which their taxes for the previous calendar year are due. However, despite this advance knowledge, throughout most of any given tax year many taxpayers have little or no insight into their tax status, and/or the tax ramifications of their financial decisions. Indeed, in many cases, taxpayers are almost completely unaware of their current tax liabilities for a given tax year until they are forced to focus on their tax situation, typically after the end of the tax year, and after all of the financial decisions for the tax year have been irrevocably made.
This lack of tax awareness over most of the tax year exists, at least in part, because many taxpayers do not want to think about their taxes year round. However, the fact that many of these taxpayers do not have the ability to easily, and affordably, monitor their tax situation over course of the entire year also plays a significant part in creating this lack of tax awareness.
As a result of their lack of tax awareness over most of the tax year, many taxpayers do not currently have the information available to them that is required to make tax savvy decisions throughout the tax year. Consequently, many taxpayers are often unaware of the significant control they have over their tax liabilities. In addition, because many taxpayers do not currently have the ability to track their tax status easily, and affordably, over course of the entire year, many taxpayers are caught by surprise each year when they are finally informed of their tax liabilities. In some cases, this surprise takes the form of a tax refund that is less, or even more, than that expected. In other cases, the taxpayer can find they unexpectedly owe taxes to the IRS, or owe an amount that is greater than expected.
As discussed above, the current situation where many taxpayers do not have the ability to easily, and affordably, monitor their tax liabilities over course of the entire year often results in uninformed financial decisions being made by the taxpayers, and/or the taxpayers forfeiting significant control over their tax liabilities, and/or incorrect assumptions being made by taxpayers regarding their tax liabilities and/or refunds. This situation is less than ideal for both the taxpayers and the taxing authorities.